The German labour union Verdi has called on workers to strike at Amazon distribution centres in Bad Hersfeld, Grassen and Leipzig as a long running dispute over pay and conditions comes to a head. More than 600 are understood to have walked off the job on Friday and Saturday last week (6th-7th June).
Amazon employs 9,000 warehouse staff in Germany plus an additional 14,000 seasonal workers. Verdi is insisting that Amazon should increase rates of pay in line with collective bargaining agreements in place across the mail order and retail sector in Germany which saw pay rise by 5.1 per cent in two stages last year as opposed to a 2 per cent average raise for Amazon’s staff. Amazon argues that it regards warehouse staff as logistics workers and says it pays above average rates by the standards of that sector.
Share